Ricardo Vargas is passionate about project delivery, transformation and getting things done!
Years of Experience
Transformation Projects
Keynotes Presented
Managed Portfolio (USD)
Over the past 20 years, Ricardo has been responsible for more than 80 major transformation projects in several countries within the oil and gas, energy, infrastructure, telecommunications, information technology and finance industries, covering an investment portfolio of over 20 billion USD.
He is also an entrepreneur in the digital economy, with a focus on project management tools using artificial intelligence and machine learning.
He is currently the Executive Director of the Brightline™ Initiative, a Project Management Institute (PMI) initiative together with leading global organizations from business, government and not for profit sectors, including Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Agile Alliance, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Saudi Telecom Company (STC), Lee Hecht Harrison, and NetEase.
Brightline delivers insights and solutions that empower leaders to successfully transform their organization’s vision into reality through strategic initiative management.
Ricardo is co-founder and managing partner of PMOtto.ai, a cutting-edge virtual assistant that aims to revolutionize how users manage their project and initiatives and interact with project management software.
Users can communicate with Otto using natural language which is converted into actions within their project management software. PMOtto uses revolutionary algorithms and machine learning to provide its users with recommendations based on similar projects and available information.
From 2012 to 2016, Ricardo was the first Global Director of the Infrastructure and Project Management Group with the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) in Copenhagen, Denmark.
With a UNOPS portfolio of more than 1.2 billion dollars in projects, his work was primarily focused on improving the design, infrastructure and project management of humanitarian, peace-building and development projects all across the world, including but not limited to, Haiti, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Iraq and South Sudan.
In 2016, shortly after his time at the United Nations, he decided to document the lives of some of the most fascinating people from the Zaatari refugee camp in the Mafraq desert in Jordan. Zaatari is an illustration of the tragedy of war.
Amidst extreme violence, millions of men, women and children flee for an indefinite period. In partnership with Ana Cláudia Streva (NÓS), Ricardo developed the treatment of the film and participated in the recordings of Zaatari: Memories of the Labyrinth, a film directed by Paschoal Samora.
The film was released in Europe and Brazil in 2018 and is a co-production of the German Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion in partnership with the Brazilian Grifa Filmes, Nós, Globo Filmes, Globo News and Canal Brasil.
Between 2007 and 2009, Ricardo served at the Board of Directors and was the first Latin American to be elected Chairman of the Board of the Project Management Institute (PMI). PMI is the largest project management organization in the world, with close to 2.9 million members and certified professionals.
Vargas is a recognized reviewer of the PMI’s A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), the most relevant reference manual in the world for project management and also chaired its first official translation to Brazilian Portuguese.
Ricardo Vargas has written fifteen books on the subject of project management, published in Portuguese and English with translations in French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and Danish which have sold over 300,000 copies globally.
He is also the host of one of the most relevant podcasts in the field, the 5 Minutes PM Podcast, published in English and Portuguese, with more than 4.5 million views.
Ricardo received several awards and recognition throughout his career. In 2005, he received the PMI Distinguished Award, in 2011, the PMI IS CoP Professional Development Award and in 2015, the AACE Total Quality Management Award for his contributions to the development of project management.
He has also received the PMI Professional Development Product of the Year Award for the PMDome® workshop, considered the best project management capacity development solution in the world.
In 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017, Ricardo was also awarded by Microsoft with the Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for his work with the Microsoft Project.
He is a chemical engineer by trade, holds a Master’s Degree in Industrial Engineering from UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais) and is PhD in Civil Engineering from the UFF (Universidade Federal Fluminense). Ricardo also holds a Master Certificate in Project Management from George Washington University.
In addition to the list of accreditations, Vargas has attended the Program on Negotiation for Executives at Harvard Law School, the Advanced Project Management Program at Stanford University, the Executive Program at Singularity University and has an executive formation in Strategy and Innovation from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Ricardo lives with his family in Portugal and spends most of his time travelling around the world, helping organizations to improve business results.
Short bio Print version
Ricardo Viana Vargas is a specialist in project management and strategy implementation. Over the past 20 years, he has been responsible for more than 80 major transformation projects in several countries, covering an investment portfolio of over 20 billion USD.
He is currently the Executive Director of the Brightline Initiative™, a coalition of leading global organizations from business, government and not for profit sectors, dedicated to providing a knowledge and networking platform that delivers insights and solutions to successfully bridge the gap between strategy development and strategy implementation.
Ricardo is co-founder and managing partner of PMOtto.ai, a cutting-edge virtual assistant that aims to revolutionize how users manage their project and initiatives and interact with project management software by using chatbots, machine learning and artificial intelligence.
From 2012 to 2016, Ricardo Global Director of the Infrastructure and Project Management Group with the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS).
Vargas has written fifteen books on the subject of project management, and also host one of the most relevant podcasts in the field, the 5 Minutes PM Podcast, with more than 4 million views.
About Macrosolutions
Macrosolutions was founded by Ricardo Vargas in 1999. Its initial purpose was to manage the copyrights and royalties received by publications and products in project management. Over time, the company also coordinated the training and lectures of Professor Ricardo Vargas.
In 2006, it became a project consulting firm with international operations in the fields of oil, energy, infrastructure, telecommunications, information technology and finance.
About PMOtto.ai
PMOtto is a cutting-edge virtual assistant that aims to revolutionize how users manage their project and initiatives and interact with project management software. Users can communicate with Otto using natural language which is converted into actions within their project management software.
PMOtto uses revolutionary algorithms and machine learning to provide its users with recommendations based on similar projects and available information.